Amy Kurland’s Blue Bird Cafe on Hillsboro Road in Nashville is the kind of stuff of which fairy tales are made.  Now, Kurland has left the legacy in the hands of Nashville’s best songwriting organization, NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association International) — a fitting end a dynasty.

The legend of Blue Bird Cafe, which first opened in 1982,  is widespread. Among others, Garth Brooks and Kathy Mattea both got their record deals after playing at the Bluebird.  It was prominently featured in River Phoenix’s last film, The Thing Called Love, and it also has been featured on television so often it is difficult to enumerate.  It has been the subject of books, both fiction and non-fiction.  Ask any songwriter in Nashville — and for that matter in most parts of the country if not the world — what venue they’d most like to play at, and the most likely answer is the Bluebird.

Although the terms of the deal are confidential, the basic deal points are that Kurland will continue to own the real estate and lease it to NSAI, and NSAI purchased the business at a price rumored to be in the low six figures.

“I couldn’t think of anybody else other than [NSAI] that would have the same mission, the same love in their heart for songwriters,” Kurland told the Associated Press.

The official announcement of the transfer was made before a performance by Kris Kristofferson.  The transition takes place January 1.